WTF Moment of the Week: Catnip in my Tea?!

We’ve all heard of catnip – the wonder drug for kitties all across the land, the stuff that gets cats high. We were recently given a gift bag for our two monster kitties for Christmas (neither of whom had ever had catnip before.) We came home and set the bag down. Within seconds, our cat Bear had sniffed out the bag, shoved his fat head in there, gnawed through the tissue paper, and yanked out his drug of choice. We couldn’t believe how fast he found it, and laughed for the next half hour as we watched our cats roll around the floor like they were tripping out on some serious sauce. Now, flash-forward to last night, when I was pouring myself a cup of Celestial Seasoning’s tea.

celestial seasonings catnip tea

The tea is called “Tension Tamer,” and Greg and I found it a couple of weeks ago at the grocery store. It was not only delicious, but it totally knocked me out after drinking it. As in, eyelids involuntary closing, and the need to go right to bed. And it was the best sleep I had in a long time. So last night I decided to take a look at the ingredients in this all natural tea: peppermint? yum. Ginger? Mmm. West Indian Lemongrass? How exotic. And toward the bottom of the list, there it was: catnip.

Catnip?! Catnip.

According to the website www.cat-world.com/au:

Catnip tends to have a sedative effect on humans. It is most often drunk as a tea. It is also useful for settling an upset stomach. It has also been used to treat headaches, scarlet fever, coughing, insomnia & smallpox.

Catnip can also be used for cuts, studies show it has a natural healing quality. Crush fresh catnip leaves, damp them & apply to your cut. Some other medicinal uses for catnip are: Anaesthetic, antibiotic, anti rheumatic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, muscular aches and pains, rheumatism, chills, cold in the joints, hemorrhoids, toothache.

The site also goes on to say that a part that makes up catnip, nepetalactone, is about ten times more effective at repelling mosquitos than DEET, which is the active ingredient in most insect repellents. Ten times! I think it’s safe to say I am planting some catnip around my deck this summer.

Thanks to a little research, I now know a bit more about catnip and am less freaked out that it is in my favorite tea. I’m very happy that I can continue to drink my herbal, holistic sleep-aid. But if you see me rolling around on the floor, batting at yarn and acting skittish, you’ll know why.

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About Alessandra

Alessandra Macaluso is author of What a Good Eater! and The Real-Deal Bridal Bible, host of the Real-Deal Brides Podcast, and blogger at AlessandraMacaluso.com. Alessandra’s work is featured in several anthologies, and she has contributed to The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, and many other online publications. Her original screenplay “Polar Suburbia” placed as a semi-finalist in the Moondance Film Festival.
Alessandra is mom to two toddlers and a twenty-five pound Maine coon cat who believes he is a dog. She spends her time driving her OCD husband completely nuts with her constant rearrangement of scenery in their home. Learn more at AlessandraMacaluso.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Comments

@LoriHi Lori! It is actually an herb, you can plant it: http://www.cat-world.com.au/all-about-catnip don’t be afraid, it’s actually pretty good! 😉 But you can imagine the moments of freak-out in between reading the label, and researching it to figure out what it was! LOL

Hahahaha! No way!! I am definitely going to keep an eye out on you…if you meow even once I’m calling 911! 😉

(And yes, it really is very interesting, I’m looking forward to how you use catnip if you end up planting it) – by the way, I was wondering if you were still going to plant a garden as big as you did last year since you’re doing the CSA this year…won’t it be too much?

@cary.collinslpc Hi Cary! Too funny…Purr!! Yeah good call on the all catnip tea, that may be taking it a bit too far! Let me know what kind you try, I would love to hear if it is good! Good to see you here!

@rshin Haha Rula! I think I really will plant it around the deck, especially because of how it keeps the mosquitos away. It looks pretty enough and I’ll just plant it with my herbs. I am still planning on doing a garden this year – I looked at the CSA schedule, and they give you a projected harvest, so I am going to plant the things that I won’t be getting from there. Hopefully it will work out, but who knows – I’m sure it will be a trial and error year!

OMG. I just read this and died laughing. I just said, “I love that the teas I drink are natural.” Then I started reading the ingredients to my fiancé and when I said, “CATNIP SHUT THE HELL UP!” Lord Jesus forgive me, he burst out laughing. Even still, is this dangerous? I need to do research. As I kept reading I was thinking maybe I want to by this! We are still laughing. Always a laugh when we come to Wal-Mart. I see another brand TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL:RELAXATION TEAS says organic capnip herb. Ha! That sounds better than CATNIP. I can’t believe it. You never know what you are taking in. Made my day. I think I’m going to buy this.

Haha! Supposedly it’s not dangerous at all (in tea quantities, as far as I know) and is actually good for you! So true, ya never really know what we’re eating/drinking! Glad you had a good laugh, so did we! 🙂 Let me know if you like it – and if you start purring LMAO